Mafuz Rahman, 40, had his finger wedged so awkwardly inside the gas spout of his yellow cab that firefighters had to shut down the station's fuel flow to cut him loose.
The drama unfolded at the station on Coney Island and Ditmas Avenues in Kensington, where Rahman noticed a piece of napkin in his gas tank.
"When he went to pull it out with his finger, it got stuck between the flap," said FDNY Special Operations Battalion Chief Joe Downey.
Firefighters called to the scene were briefly stumped: They feared that getting Rahman free with a saw would spark an explosion. Crews eventually clamped down the fuel lines to cut off the fumes, and then used their saw to cut the pipe out of the car.
Rahman was freed just after 11:30 a.m., more than an hour after his ordeal started. He never got the napkin.
"Everybody learns their lesson," Rahman said. "I'm OK. There was a little pain, but I'm lucky [the flap] is not sharp."
